Dying to Live Free: Day 2 – Why is God so Mad?

Romans 1:18-32 lets us know why we need God’s Good News. We need Good News because of the bad news. The bad news: God is angry at man because when God revealed himself to man through all the stuff he made (sunsets, fearfully and wonderfully made people, animals, mountain ranges), man tried to forget him and chose to sin. Creation was supposed to point us to God who is eternally powerful, all-knowing, and worthy of all worship. But instead of giving him the credit for the created things we see around us, we begin to worship the created things rather than the creator. In ancient times, they chose to worship animals, trees, wooden idols, and insects. In America, we worship cars, clothes, money, education, success, and our ourselves. Our minds become oblivious to the things of God and we become “intellectual” in our thinking. This makes God so angry that instead of fighting people he just gives them over to what they want to do.

26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. (Romans 1:26-27)

We begin to slide into more and more sinful stuff. Pornography, fornicaiton, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, are just some of the stuff we fell into as humans. But Paul also says that God is mad at folk that are:

Wow, if you didn’t see yourself somewhere in this list, then you are probably a liar, and so you made the list by default. 🙂 The point is that everybody, including you, is under the wrath of God, a wrath so great, that he pushes those who choose to do wrong into doing more wrong, because they want to anyway. It’s as if God is saying, “Oh, you want to do your own thing, you won’t acknowledge me and worship me, fine, let me push you off the cliff since you want to fly!!!”

So whether you are a dope fiend or you just like to tell lies, whether you got drunk one time or you murdered somebody, whether you practice homosexuality or you got caught stealing a Now & Later from the neighborhood grocery store at 9 years old, because of our sin we are all under the wrath of God and it is why WE NEED SOMEONE TO SAVE US FROM GOD’S WRATH. Guess who did? Jesus. Only Jesus righteousness is good enough for God and only people who wear Jesus’ righteousness, who trust him for their salvation are “good” enough for God. Not because they are good, but because Jesus is good.

Some other thoughts about bible study:

* Jeanique shared a powerful testimony about how God has delivered her from lesbianism. For a few minutes, all eyes were on her, as she began to share herself with us and give us insight as to how this sin gripped her and how God’s power delivered her. Let’s continue to pray for Jeanique as she continues to walk in the Spirit and resists temptation.

*There were lots of questions some we got to and some we didn’t. I will do a better job next week in getting your questions in. POST SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS HERE!! I promise I will respond.

*Homosexuality is not greater or lesser than any other sin. The wages that God pays for all sin we commit is death and eternal separation from him. God is angry at all sin and can not be around any of it, that’s why he kicked Adam out of paradise for the one sin he committed. He wants perfect righteousness or nothing at all. The trick of the enemy is to get people comparing themselves to one another and looking down on one another, and not realizing that your self-righteousness is like filthy menstrual rags to God. (Isaiah 64:6). Humble yourself to see the sin that offends God in your life as well as the next person. Speak the truth in love to those that you know are in sin and be careful in how you treat them lest you fall. If you call Jesus your Lord, God loves you in spite of you, not because of you!

*Romans 1:18-3:20, is one big unit dealing with the guilt of the whole world (Jew and Gentile/religious folk and non-religious folk) and really should be read as one unit. We will get to the second part of that next week, as we deal with it, under the theme “God is Angry at Churchfolk, Too!” Read Romans 2 to get ready for the next week.

*Erica Soltero won the prize from last week.

*God is mad. And only the shed blood of Jesus can satisfy him. Pass it on!

Man. It was meant to be funny, at least a little. I put a smiley face by it! I thank God for allowing me the opportunity. My prayer is that some folk are able to see and feel God more clearly and be able to love more deeply